


Comparing Cells

by Duckydash13



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Let's all feel sorry for Ethan, M/M, One-Sided Relationship, The Initiative, The Watcher's Council
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 13:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8015428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duckydash13/pseuds/Duckydash13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ethan spends time in prison reflecting on another time he was locked up. Of course, the reason was always the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comparing Cells

Ethan Rayne sat in silence in the Initiative Prison. He was not scared. After all, he'd done all this before. Fear would be reasonable, he argued to himself, as memories of last time came to the surface. But last time was different.

Ripper never changed though. That was the one constant in these misfortunes.

He heard the soldiers march past his cell and shivered. Usually he didn't mind darkness. He had become practically nocturnal for his work, after all. But usually it wasn't quite so dark, and cold, and damp.

***

It was 20 years, give or take, last time. Randall had died. Ripper had been sad. Devastated. Remorseful, even. Ethan had always wondered whether Ripper cared more for Randall or himself. It seemed he had found his answer.

So off Ripper had gone, back to his Watcher family. The others had been overwhelmed, or run off for fear of police, and Ethan had found himself alone again.

He hadn't been expecting visitors when he heard the knock on the door. He never expected visitors those days. And anyone polite enough to knock on his door before entering his home wasn't likely to be keen on spending time with him.

He remembered how they'd kicked the door down. He remembered how one of them looked like Ripper. Except older, and smarter, and really entirely different in manner. He'd had a gun. Ripper had never cared for guns. Why use a gun when you could use magic to disembowel your enemies in an instant without any aiming required. You didn't even have to look at them. Not that Ripper ever did that. He had always left that sort of thing to Ethan.

They had bundled him into a van. That was the same. That sort of thing was always the same. And they'd drugged him. As if he wasn't high already.

They'd tried to explain something to him while he lay on the floor of the van drifting in and out of consciousness, his hands cuffed behind his back. Why he was being arrested. Something about corrupting the property of The Council.

As if Ripper could belong to anyone. If Ethan couldn't own Ripper, couldn't tame Ripper, he would very much like to know how this "Council" planned to. So he thought, at least.

People like Ethan and Ripper were never meant to be tamed. But The Council could tame Slayers. They would not be beaten by a couple of miscreant wizards. Even if it meant using methods that lesser organisations deemed deleterious.

***

Yes, Ethan had been here before. He knew what would happen. It was no wonder he felt betrayed. It was no wonder he felt afraid. He only hoped Chaos would save him once more. He hoped this time he might manage to make himself truly hate Ripper. Enough to bring him back or destroy him forever.

Ethan had long believed that perhaps if he loved Ripper enough, he would come back. It hadn't worked. It was time for a new method. Hate and love, perhaps, were not so far apart. Ethan just hoped Ripper could move from one to the other before he did.


End file.
